Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Okay, I know, there are soooo many teacher bloggers out there now talking about math centres...and I do love them too, but I just love getting literacy centres ready! (Actually, I am planning to purchase and read Debbie Diller's Math Centers Book next month so math centres is next on my 'to do' list!). I have used so many different Lit. Centre board task cards over the years...some were great, others I needed to make up. So a few years ago I created these for my class. They work really well as the students are able to match the small job board icon with the large icon card around the room at the centre itself. Today I finally got around to printing and mounting some more of these cards. Some centres are stored in bins (like Playdough and Write the Room) and the kids take them out as needed and place on one of our large group tables in the middle of the room. Others, like Puppets and Sand Search, are housed in one area all year long. I hope you will be able to use these task cards too (sorry, big books doesn't have an icon, can't get my scanner to work tonight!). The small ones fit in a standard pocket chart. Here is what it looks like (I am borrowing this image from my fabulous teaching partner, Mrs. Parisi, since I am off this year).

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Oh my! You should see my basement! Since I was home this year on mat. leave I brought home EVERYTHING from my classroom that belonged to me!

Needless to say, my husband can't wait until that junk stuff is gone! As I started going through it, trying to see what I need to do for September, I realized that I needed to find a better way to organize my to do list. So I created this and am sharing with you (if you are anything like me, lists are a must!).

I am planning to go in to school for a day sometime in the next few weeks to clean up my new classroom. Yes, I will be moving rooms (it's actually a little larger of a classroom too!) and I am excited but the new room has so much stuff in it belonging to who knows who!?!?! I can't wait to start moving my things there (my husband can't wait either!) :)

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

What a day yesterday was! I was planning to post a message last night but I went to bed EARLY!!! Yesterday started off by me taking my little guy to his pediatrician for a 9 month checkup (everything went super!) and then I went to my school to meet my new teaching partner for September (which is when I return to work too). I decided that since I will be at school for most of the day, I would laminate some things that I need for September. Everything started going well until we I left the laminator on unattended too long and burned the paper which caused it to stick to the rollers (oops!). Thanks to another teacher it was fixed promptly. The fire drill went off twice (and in my mind I kept thinking, oh God, please tell me it's not the laminator! Ha ha! It wasn't! Thank goodness!) Well, I did all my laminating - yah! - and drove to pick up my kids at my mom's house ... until I was stopped by a police officer for making an improper left turn and got a big, fat ticket! Ahhh! Not such a good day! So, that being said, today I stayed home and enjoyed the heat playing with the kids in the backyard!

As I was laminating, I thought I would share some cute posters that I made last month which I plan on using at the Writing Centre. The kids can refer to them while writing or drawing/labeling their pictures. Hope you can use them! Click on the link below to print and mount onto cardstock or poster paper. You can laminate them, too, if you know how to use a laminator - not like me!!!

(Sorry - I don't know how to turn the picture so you can properly see it!)

***I uploaded all of these posters as a large ZIP file on TpT for FREE! Click here to download your copy***